The present invention relates generally to composite articles formed from expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (“ePTFE”) materials, and particularly to a composite article made up of a plurality of polytetrafluoroethylene (“PTFE”) components having differing expansion characteristics.
Conventional micro porous ePTFE articles are utilized for many useful articles, such as filters, fabrics, gaskets, electrical insulation and human implant devices. These ePTFE articles are typically produced by blending PTFE resin with a lubricant, compressing the blended resin into a billet, extruding the billet into an extrudate, drying the extrudate, calendering the extrudate (if desired), stretching or expanding the extrudate, and sintering the expanded extrudate to form the final article. The ePTFE article can be manufactured in any extruded shape, including sheets, tubes, rods or filaments.
The micro porous structure of known ePTFE articles is characterized by a plurality of nodes that are connected together by a plurality of fibrils. The nodes are essentially solid PTFE, having a density of about 2.0-2.2 grams per cubic centimeter, whereas the density of the expanded material is less than about 2.0 grams per cubic centimeter. Typically, the fibrils of ePTFE materials average in length from about 0.1 microns to about 100 microns, and the volume of the structure occupied by the fibrils has a density ranging from about 2.0 grams per cubic centimeter to less than 0.5 grams per cubic centimeter. The shape, size and orientation of the nodes and fibrils within the structure can be controlled by varying the expansion rate, expansion ratio, number of expansion axes and other processing parameters to yield many different structures. It is also known that properties such as the expandability and microstructure of the expanded article vary with the molecular weight, particle size and other physical characteristics of the PTFE resin. Various methods of producing ePTFE with differing physical properties are described in the literature, e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 3,953,566, to Gore, herein incorporated by reference.
For some applications it is desirable to provide an article having an asymmetric microstructure in which the fibrils adjacent one surface of the article are relatively short in comparison to the fibrils disposed adjacent the opposite surface of the article. However, attempted solutions to this technical problem have been unsatisfactory due to cost and functionability considerations.